I’m not sure if I ever read one of your open thread posts. Anyways, I started teaching beginner’s Korean online as part of Pegasus society program. (Once you took an advanced course in this, so I guess you can recall). I myself am not very good in Korean yet. I would say I am an advanced beginner forever (more than 4 years now). Can you please suggest me some tips on how to teach Korean better? Thanks Shanna!

Hangukdrama

30 January, 2014 at 9:31 PM (1 year ago)

wow that’s really cool!! Mmm I guess at the beginner stage the most important thing is to introduce the basic (like the 아/어/애 conjugations) without boring people and to ensure that people have fun learning. Also it’s also balancing basic grammar with phrases / stuff that people can use immediately and apply. It’s hard to find that right balance!

93liner

30 January, 2014 at 2:39 AM (1 year ago)

Hi. I’ve been studying Korean for approximately a total of 2 years and 3 months already and I’m already TOPIK Level 2 proficient. Since my last Korean class ended early-December, I decided to move forward and self-study Korean from that point. I already registered for the 34th exam in April and will gonna take the Intermediate one. I just have my worry on taking the very last Intermediate Exam in fears of failing it due to the fact that all the people I knew who took the Intermediate exam failed, well at least for one person (she’s in Korea now and passed Level 3, the time standards hasn’t been raised to Level 4 as a proficiency requirement for Korean university admissions). I am aiming for Level 4 this time but since I’m looking after the former fact, I limited myself to just passing Level 3 because I think it’s impossible for me to pass Level 4 at this time wherein I only have 3 more months left before the exam. I don’t wanna pressure myself on reaching Level 4, it’s just for me that if I passed the Intermediate exam with Level 3, it’s good for me at the moment. If I passed Level 4, the better. What’s worst after knowing the TOPIK exam will change, it became a burden for me for October as that might force myself on studying some advanced-level vocabulary and grammar to the Level 5 extent since I don’t know how will the new format work until we knew everything on the 35th exam which is gonna be on July…

Also, I might begin self-studying Japanese in order to pass the N5 level of this year’s JLPT exam (which here on our country is only held in December). I attempted to register last year but I ended up backing my application out due to lack of confidence and determination, as I think my basic/survival Japanese skills aren’t very enough, and also I was focused on my Korean class.

Why am I starting on the lowest level unlike you who started almost/or in the middle? Because I think for me, self-studying isn’t enough (my mentality ugh). For me, I like to start from the very start to see how far I’ve progressed. And I think I don’t have that discipline to study hardcore… as in what I learned is just about it. Nothing more, nothing less (having this attitude ever since). Though every people varies in terms of how they study, I’ll just gonna shut my mouth from here and refrain from speaking more about it lol

Sorry to let this all out here… just worrying a lot because at this moment I am torn between two lovers… I mean two languages (well, I consider Japanese as my first love, but Korean became my true love lol)

Hangukdrama

30 January, 2014 at 9:41 PM (1 year ago)

Hello! Firstly I’ll like to apologise that your comment didn’t appear immediately >< ;; this blog has a very strange comment monitoring system beyond me.
I understand your worries but I think that in language learning, mentality is very important. If you believe you can do it, you really will be able to. For me, I view language learning as something that is mostly “if you put in effort you will get it” unlike other things where money/opportunities etc come to play. Obviously if you have opportunities to stay in Japan/Korea or have loads of money, you can learn the language faster (doesn’t guarantee too). But I still believe that self-learning is very much possible and the lack of money/opportunities or what not is not a big hindrance. Mentality/attitude is much more important and I think you should believe in yourself and constantly try to challenge yourself (it’s free). TOPIK is always just one tool to measure proficiency and it’s meant to reflect your proficiency. So what you should care more about is your proficiency and not the scores. So it’s the “real skills” and not the score that you should aim to improve. The change in format may result it in being more difficult/easy to score but your proficiency does not improve/become worse with the change in format (it’s the same right?) so looking at the underlying stuff is more important! Just go for TOPIK when you feel ready or when you want a little bit of a challenge, don’t worry too much!!

The most important thing is to love and enjoy learning and everything else will fall in place! hehe about being torn in between loves, it’s the same with me. Just go for whatever you feel like at the moment. My true love used to be (or still is?) Korean but recently I’ve taken an avid interest in Japanese…. so just let things flow!

choronghi

30 January, 2014 at 8:08 AM (1 year ago)

have you heard of people using 돌직구 ? I came across this word when I was googling 성형전 for a korean celebrity lol. it just happened to be in the title of some article that was about that same celebrity which was not about plastic surgery. so i googled around in korean and then in japanese because i did find the answer in korean but i didn’t feeli like reading the kroean explanation and usually i can find this stuff in japanese. Then I asked my korean mom and she has no idea what it means and she asked my aunt who lives in korea and she never heard of it lol. it seems to be slang? I’m just curious how proliferated it is by asking you if you’ve heard of it?

Hangukdrama

mmm i haven’t heard of it! I’m actually rather bad with slangs or new words used in variety shows >
Reply

gillian

30 January, 2014 at 11:39 PM (1 year ago)

돌(stone)
직구 (fast ball/pitch – like in baseball)

So 돌직구 loosely translates to a fast ball that hits you like a stone? It’s a slang term for a very straightforward question/statement that causes the person to be taken aback. It’s usually used in a negative manner though. For example, if you meet someone for the first time and said they were ugly, that’s 돌직구 (돌직구 던진다) because it’s like throwing a stone in their face. But it’s not always used in a bad way – if you watched WGM, they used the term on Taemin pretty often because he throws questions at Naeun in a very straightforward manner.

HAHA sorry I just had to reply this I love korean slangs (hello shanna)

Hi! I remember I learned this word through a variety show! It’s actually a baseball term which means to throw the ball fast. In slang it means throwing questions/comments/드립 to the person you’re talking to without thinking how they will feel.

coke

Maria

31 January, 2014 at 4:40 AM (1 year ago)

We just got an office with my sister, and we’re working off of our laptops. But, we seriously need a good editing computer (since we DO make YT videos). She’s wary of asking for a business loan, but has NO trouble hitting up her boyfriend for the cash. Really? Does she not see how that may cause conflict in the future? smh

Shoot anonymous

31 January, 2014 at 4:57 AM (1 year ago)

Lately I’ve just been having depressing thoughts about humanity. How people beat up animals or weaker humans for fun, how they deceive everyone for the sake of profit, how looks are more important than personality, how openly perverted our society has become, how nobody gives a crap about other people around them. Thoughts like that. I know I can’t change anything so I shouldn’t be bothered, but it’s so hard to move past that when I see this despicable behavior all around. I wonder how I can ignore this negative information and move on for the sake of my own sanity. I think that the only thing keeping me going now are my own dreams, goals and hobbies, without them I would’ve broken down by now.

That’s why Exo – MAMA’s lyrics have been resonating with me lately more than when it first came out. If I may recommend a nice cover: http://youtu.be/kqhH2Kydxg4
I think this music fits the lyrics even more.

Alice

31 January, 2014 at 6:59 AM (1 year ago)

Hi! I have been reading your blog for some time. It started when I was very into learning Korean an your posts motivated me a lot. Now I have to focus on Chinese as it’s my major. And you write more about Japanese now anyway lol. But still, I really like how you learn languages by yourself. Considering how long i ‘study’ Chinese and Korean, the results are really pathetic orz.
I wish you good luck and l’m looking forward to new korean posts^^.

I’ve been slacking off so much with studying consistently. I’m still on my road of getting over depression and anxiety, but I don’t want to keep using that as a reason. I love studying Japaese and Korean, but I haven’t been doing anything to show it. I’m making a movement to go hours each day studying and using what I know and I know I’ll feel much better if I use my time that way. There are some wonderful new books in my room that I haven’t gotten to work through yet so I’ll use that and reading fellow bloggers’ posts as inspiration. Sometimes with all the things going on in life, I just forget how good it is to just live and do what you love and know you’re capable of so much.

/looks at books/ They’re calling me… I can’t ignore them any more. They’re books! ( ☆ω☆) I don’t know what it is about new and more advanced materials that’s just so… good. XD